Welcome to the wide world of paranormal pastimes, where striking out might strike you dead. Editors Charlaine Harris and Toni L. P. Kelner are your announcers for this collection of the most peculiar plays ever made—including a story featuring Sookie Stackhouse and Manfred Bernardo… Sports fans live and die by their teams’ successes and failures—though not literally. But these fifteen authors have written spirited—in more ways than one—tales of killer competitions that would make even the most die-hard players ask to be benched. This anthology includes tales of unusual athletics by: JAN BURKE • DANA CAMERON • ADAM-TROY CASTRO • BRENDAN DuBOIS • CHARLAINE HARRIS • TONI L. P. KELNER • CAITLIN KITTREDGE • WILLIAM KENT KRUEGER • ELLEN KUSHNER • MERCEDES LACKEY • JOE R. LANSDALE • LAURA LIPPMAN • SEANAN McGUIRE • BRANDON SANDERSON • SCOTT SIGLER

Everyone plays something - whether it's solitaire or squash or stockcar racing, World of Warcraft or World Wrestling Entertainment tournaments, darts or dodgeball. Games bring out the best in us, the worst in us, the thing-we-never-expected in us. Human beings just naturally like to test their limits, both mental and physical - and why should the supernaturals be any different? In their latest anthology international superstar Charlaine Harris and award-winning mystery writer Toni Kelner have collected stories that feature ghostly players, bloodthirsty interruptions, and competitions with deadly outcomes, from some of the top writers in the fantasy, horror, crime and mystery genres. Game on!

The gods chose two unsuspecting players as their pawns in what was supposed to be a simple game of Dark Creatures, a game replete with dark things from a world gone mad and forgotten gods that play with life and death for their own amusement. When the rules for winning are ambiguous, the human beings are suddenly caught up in a contest of good versus evil and their game begins to spiral out of control. Now the cost of losing could mean the end of humanity and the very world itself.

A potent new book examines the overlap between our ecological crisis and video games Video games may be fun and immersive diversions from daily life, but can they go beyond the realm of entertainment to do something serious—like help us save the planet? As one of the signature issues of the twenty-first century, ecological deterioration is seemingly everywhere, but it is rarely considered via the realm of interactive digital play. In Playing Nature, Alenda Y. Chang offers groundbreaking methods for exploring this vital overlap. Arguing that games need to be understood as part of a cultural response to the growing ecological crisis, Playing Nature seeds conversations around key environmental science concepts and terms. Chang suggests several ways to rethink existing game taxonomies and theories of agency while revealing surprising fundamental similarities between game play and scientific work. Gracefully reconciling new media theory with environmental criticism, Playing Nature examines an exciting range of games and related art forms, including historical and contemporary analog and digital games, alternate- and augmented-reality games, museum exhibitions, film, and science fiction. Chang puts her surprising ideas into conversation with leading media studies and environmental humanities scholars like Alexander Galloway, Donna Haraway, and Ursula Heise, ultimately exploring manifold ecological futures—not all of them dystopian.

An innovative games book to share and play wherever you go! This innovative new games book allows you to share and play animal-themed games wherever you go! Choose a game and then lay the book flat. Take counters from the front pocket, and then spin the dice to play away! Guide the penguins as they hop over icebergs, herd sheep back to their pens, find your way through the woods to the honey pot--and more in this fun title!

This innovative games book allows you to share and play magical games wherever you go!Simply lay the book flat and choose a game. Then take counters from the front pocket and spin the dice to play. Featuring amazing and magical characters such as unicorns, dragons, mermaids, and more!

Most people don't believe in monsters, but you know the truth. They're real, and it's your task to bring them down. This revised edition of Monster of the Week brings that adventure to life.Monster of the Week is a standalone action-horror RPG for 3-5 people. Hunt high school beasties a la Buffy the Vampire Slayer, travel the country to bring down unnatural creatures like the Winchester brothers of Supernatural, or head up the government investigation like Mulder and Scully.This book contains everything you need to tackle Bigfoot, collar a chupacabra, and drive away demons. In this revised edition, you'll find: